GRAND JUNCTION — State Sen. Steve King is campaigning to be the next Mesa County sheriff. He is also defending himself against allegations that he falsified a timecard at the sheriff’s office while working there on a part-time contract basis.

It is the second time in four years that the 55-year-old Republican has faced official inquiries about money.

The first came when a legislative-ethics panel looked into whether then-state representative King double-dipped when he borrowed from his campaign funds for car-rental expenses in 2010. He repaid his campaign after the state paid his expenses. The complaint about impropriety that came later from the Colorado Ethics Watch group did not result in more than a scolding from some of King’s fellow legislators.

This time, King, who recently won the Republican primary for sheriff and has no Democrat challenger, is being investigated by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The investigation came after he was fired from the part-time position 18 days before the primary for allegedly falsifying a timecard.

Mesa County Republican Party Chairwoman Lois Dunn-Susuras said party officials don’t plan to take any action on King’s troubles.

“It’s out of our hands. When a person wins the election, they win,” she said. “We’ll let it go to whatever course it goes to.”

Three other unaffiliated potential candidates have picked up petitions to run as write-in candidates. They must collect 750 signatures by July 10 to make the ballot. Two other unaffiliated candidates have a write-in status on the ballot, meaning their names will not appear, but if voters ask, they will be supplied with the names.

Mesa County elections coordinator Catherine Lenhart said another half dozen people have called in asking about the process but have not picked up forms.

In a case with a maze of connected pieces, King was fired by former Sheriff Stan Hilkey in one of Hilkey’s last actions before he left that post to become director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety. That puts Hilkey over the CBI, which is investigating King because of potential conflicts in the sheriff’s office and the Grand Junction Police Department.

King worked for both departments for a total of 32 years before and during the time he has served in the Colorado legislature for three terms, first as a representative for District 54 then as a senator for District 7.

King could not be reached for comment. He has kept a low profile in Grand Junction since the primary. But he told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that the matter amounts to a “a $90 mistake” and he apologized for making that mistake.

The matter revolves around a timecard King submitted in May for 106 hours. He was told to resubmit his time reflecting mandatory breaks. King instead submitted a timecard that increased his hours to 119.

When he was confronted about the matter by Rebecca Spiess, who was the undersheriff at the time but is now serving as sheriff until the election, King grew irate and stormed out of the meeting.

He was fired several days later. Insubordination was added to the reasons for that firing.

King’s money-related woes have become an embarrassment for the Mesa County Republican Party and created a quandary for Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger, a Republican.

“The sheriff’s office has given me a letter that says (King) was found to be untruthful,” Hautzinger said. “That is problematic but not fatal to cases.”

Under federal law, the letter stating that King has been found to be untruthful will have to be sent to defense attorneys in cases King is involved in.

Hautzinger said having this Brady notification attached to a law officer’s record “is damaging to an officer’s career, but not necessarily fatal.” He said defense attorneys use it to question an officer’s veracity on the witness stand.

The owners of Boulder’s Sterling University Peaks apartments, who this summer were cited for illegally subdividing 92 bedrooms in the complex, have reached an agreement to settle the case for $410,000, the city announced Thursday.